Dominique Frischer’s prize winning biography delves into the incredible life of Baron Maurice de Hirsch (1831-1896), the so-called Moses of the Americas. He began accumulating his fortune at the banking firm of Birschoffen & Goldschmidt in 1851, then by funding the tumultuous construction of the famed 1,300 mile Orient Express linking Europe to Constantinople. As he became extremely wealthy financing the industrialization of Eastern Europe and Turkey, he became deeply affected by the miserable living conditions of Jews living there. When his only son died in 1887, a crushed Hirsch proclaimed “I lost my son, but I didn’t lose my heir. Mankind is now my heir.” From that point on he delegated almost all of his business responsibilities and dedicated himself entirely to philanthropy.

Starting in 1890, Hirsch set up a series of foundations – The Jewish Colonization Association, The Baron de Hirsch Fund, The Universal Israel Alliance – that constituted the largest philanthropic trust in the world. His dream was to facilitate the emigration of Jews from Central and Eastern Europe to the Americas. While much of his aid went to help poor Jews arriving to the United States, his real goal was to establish self-sufficient farming communities, like the Woodbine settlements in New Jersey, where immigrants flourished for generations. Hirsch bought thousands of acres of land in Canada, the United States, Argentina, and Brazil throughout the early 1890’s. Tens of thousands of Jews moved to these communities and were taught the latest scientific farming methods. These communities thrived, especially in South America; for example, by 1948 over 500,000 Jews were living in his Argentinean settlements alone. Sadly, however, Hirsch did not get to see the effects of his stunning success. When he died in 1896, the colonies were not prepared for the rush of exhausted settlers and many people, including the leading Zionist advocate Theodore Herzl, chastised the Baron for his far-fetched plan, wishing instead that the Baron’s resources be directed towards the Jewish emigration to what was then Palestine. However, Hirsch’s legacy is now firmly secured by his hundreds of thousands of heirs. As the historian Nahum Sokolow wrote about him in his History of Zionism, “…in Russia, every poor Jewish family worshipped his name. Not for what he had already done, not for what he promised to do, but because, at the worst moment of their lives, his outstretched arm gave them hope, and the courage to survive.” Frischer’s lively biography paints a riveting portrait of the man and his boundless generosity.